The Lebanese military announced today that it had fired on Syrian aircraft violating Beirut’s airspace, a move that analysts speculated was designed in part as a public response to efforts – driven by both sides of the almost three-year Syrian conflict – to expand that war into Lebanese territory: The move suggests...

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A top Lebanese leader prominent for his opposition to Iranian interference in Lebanon – and more specifically to attempts by Hezbollah and Syria’s Bashar al-Assad regime to dominate the country – was murdered Friday morning by a massive car bomb that ripped through central Beirut, killing him and at least five other...

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Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah last week declared that the Iran-backed terror group would attack Israel in response to the December 4th killing of Haj Hassan Hilu Laqis, deepening concerns that the organization – which has seen its brand as an anti-Israel vanguard shattered by its role in the Syrian conflict – is seeking to...

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A car bomb detonated early yesterday near a Hezbollah base in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley has deepened concerns that sectarian tensions generated by the Iran-backed terror group’s participation in Syria’s nearly three-year-old conflict are spilling over into Lebanon. Shiite Hezbollah has provided critical support to the Bashar al-Assad regime, allowing it to...

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The Associated Press yesterday reported on efforts to prevent escalation in the aftermath of what it described as “a deadly border skirmish” between Israel and Lebanon. Israel and Lebanon on Monday rushed to ease tensions following a deadly border skirmish that left one Israeli soldier dead, with the enemy countries holding a...

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Reuters yesterday reported on declarations from a top Hamas figure asserting that the Palestinian terror group had “resumed” its relations with Iran, after several months in which the organization was estranged from its long-time sponsor in Tehran due to sectarian tensions generated by the almost three-year Syrian conflict. “Relations between Hamas and...

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Hezbollah and Syrian army forces battling on behalf of the Bashar al-Assad regime are close to seizing the town of Nabuk, one of the last areas in the Lebanon-adjacent Qalamoun region still controlled by opposition forces, amid renewed concerns from Lebanese officials that blowback generated by Hezbollah’s participation in Syria’s...

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The New York Times today outlined the range of motives for, and the potential cascade effects of, the overnight assassination of Haj Hassan Hilu Laqis, a top Hezbollah figure who the outlet noted was “variously described as running the group’s sophisticated telecommunications network and working to procure strategic weapons.” The Times emphasized both...

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The Jerusalem Post, conveying a report from the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai, today described statements by senior British diplomatic sources revealing that London has been facilitating secret indirect talks between the Obama administration and Hezbollah, a group that is designated as a terrorist organization under U.S. law: Senior British diplomatic sources, quoted in...

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Iranian President Hassan Rouhani Tuesday delivered a progress report describing his first 100 days in office, describing among other things his administration’s success in weakening the international sanctions regime against the country. One hundred days into his first term as Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani offered an upbeat progress report to the country Tuesday,...

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